What do I see when I turn out the light?

tadc · January 27, 2004, 7:41am

Something I’ve always wondered, and since it’s on the radio right now I might as well ask for some opinion…

What exactly is it that Joe Cocker/The Beatles see “when they turn out the light” that they “can’t tell you but I know it’s mine”?

Desmostylus · January 27, 2004, 7:50am

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now
by Barry Miles

PAUL: This was written out at John’s house in Weybridge for Ringo; we always liked to do one for him and it had to be not too much like our style. I think that was probably the best of the songs we wrote for Ringo actually. He was to be a character in this operetta, this whole thing that we were doing, so this gave him a good intro, wherever he came in the album; in fact it was the second track. It was a nice place for him, but wherever it came, it gave us an intro. Again, because it was the pot era, we had to slip in a little reference: ‘I get high!’

It was pretty much co-written, John and I doing a work song for Ringo, a little craft job. I always saw those as the equivalent of writing a James Bond film theme. It was a challenge, it was something out of the ordinary for us because we actually had to write in a key for Ringo and you had to be a little tongue in cheek. Ringo liked kids a lot, he was very good with kids so we knew ‘Yellow Submarine’ would be a good thing for Ringo to sing. In this case, it was a slightly more mature song, which I always liked very much. I remember giggling with John as we wrote the lines ‘What do you see when you turn out the light? I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine.’ It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers, or it could have been taken on a deeper level; this was what it meant but it was a nice way to say it, a very non-specific way to say it. I always liked that.

naita · January 27, 2004, 2:04pm

You see the result of the rods and cones in your retina firing randomly due to sheer boredom.

tadc · January 27, 2004, 10:18pm

That’s what I always thought, but… me and my dirty mind.

cgrayce · January 28, 2004, 1:13am

Here’s a more interesting experiment: Look at a bare light bulb which is off, while finding the switch for the bulb with your hand. Close your eyes without moving your head at all. Wait a few seconds for your eyes to get used to the dark. Turn the light on. Now turn the light off and immediately open your eyes. You should see the filament of the bulb cool down, passing rapidly from white through red to duller red to black. The (typically horseshoe-shaped) outline of the filament should be clear.

You can’t see this ordinarily because the bulb cools off faster than your eyes can adapt to the lower light level. But if you close your eyes while the bulb is on, you can “pre-adapt” your eyes, and see the cooling filament.

If you try this with a fluorescent bulb, however, you won’t see a damn thing, because those bulbs are not incandescent – they turn off essentially instantly.